The feature film The Party (Žurka) had its world premiere on 22 August 2004 at the Sarajevo Film Festival, the largest and most influential film festival in the region. It was screened in the Main Competition Programme, alongside eight other feature films, where it received outstanding reviews from critics and an enthusiastic response from festival audiences.

The Serbian premiere took place in Novi Sad at the 13th Novi Sad Arena – Festival of Serbian Feature Films, where Aleksandar Đurica received the award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the drug addict Gara. The Party went on to win two additional awards at Serbian film festivals.

Screenwriter Aleksandar Davić received the Best Screenplay Award at the 29th Festival of Film Screenplays in Vrnjačka Banja (August 2005), while Anđelika Simić won the Best Supporting Actress Award for her role as Marija at the 40th Festival of Acting Achievements in Serbian Feature Film in Niš (August 2005).

While awaiting theatrical distribution, The Party was screened at numerous prestigious festivals throughout the region and internationally, including the 19th Herceg Novi Film Festival (August 2005), Zagreb Film Festival (October 2004), AsterFest in Strumica, North Macedonia (June 2005), Berlin Open Air Festival (May 2005), goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film in Wiesbaden (April 2005), the Braunschweig International Film Festival in Germany, and the Reggio Calabria Film Festival in Italy (June 2005).

The film was also presented during the Festival of Contemporary Serbian and Montenegrin Cinema, held in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne and Perth), Austria (Vienna), and Norway (Oslo).

Cast

Sonja Savić, Goran Šušljik, Nenad Jezdić, Aleksandar Đurica, Jelena Ćuruvija-Đurica, Nada Šargin, Anđelika Simić, Vladimir Tintor, Edit Tot Trubint, Jovana Stipić, Ivan Đurić, Aron Balaž, and Srđan Radaković.

Music

Original music by the Novi Sad band Obojeni Program and TRANCEBALKAN DESORGANISATION (Bebec – ex Boye, and Smoking J).

Crew

Director of Photography: Jovan Milinov Toba
Editor: Siniša Bokan
Production Designer: Diana Radosavljević-Milović

Selected Press Reviews

“The Party is a film of unusual structure, without conventional leading roles; instead, all of its characters are placed in the same situation, each experiencing it in a different way. The Decameron-like attempt at isolation ultimately collapses as the outside world, saturated with the sounds of an as-yet undeclared war, intrudes upon them. The characters’ destinies become increasingly complex, decadence spreads, and the narrative unfolds along multiple storylines. Aleksandar Davić guides the camera with remarkable precision through every layer of the narrative, allowing us to enjoy equally the film as a whole and each of its individual sequences.”

— Sarajevo Film Festival Daily, M.N., 23 August 2004

“At first glance, Aleksandar Davić’s The Party appears to be a retrospective look at a critical year in Yugoslav history. Dig a little deeper, however, and it reveals itself as one of those wild birthday parties that young people could be having almost anywhere in the world.”

— Ron Holloway, Sarajevo Film Festival, 23 August 2004

“Aleksandar Davić’s debut feature received a standing ovation at its world premiere two nights ago in a packed National Theatre in Sarajevo. The applause lasted for more than ten minutes, with special acclaim reserved for Sonja Savić, whom Davić brought back to the big screen after a long absence.”

— D. Stojaković, Večernje novosti, 24 August 2004

“From the very first reactions of the Sarajevo audience, fellow journalists, and members of the jury—including the renowned Mike Leigh—to the witty directorial solutions in the opening sequences, it became clear that Aleksandar Davić had created an unusual and deeply moving film. The audience quietly joining in the cult song Nebo by Obojeni Program during the film’s epilogue sent chills through the theatre.”

— B.D., Građanski list, 24 August 2004

“Within the temporal and spatial isolation of a single party, Davić constructs a series of striking individual destinies that reveal the misery and despair of the social and political moment in which the characters find themselves. The film’s humour, although occasionally broad, owes more to the tradition of Serbian social comedies of the 1970s and 1980s by Paskaljević, Šijan and Marković than to the absurdist comedy popularised by Lightning Strikes! (Munje) and its imitators.”

— Juraj Kukoč, Večernji list, 14 October 2004

“Probably the film that generated the greatest audience interest at the Zagreb Film Festival was The Party, the debut feature by Serbian director Aleksandar Davić. It is one of the biggest surprises of this year’s Serbian film production. Made in Novi Sad on a minimal budget and featuring mostly unknown actors—with Sonja Savić being the notable exception—it is particularly compelling because it is set in 1991, at the height of the war in Slavonia. A group of privileged young people from Novi Sad retreat to a weekend house on Fruška Gora, numbing their anxiety over impending military mobilisation with alcohol and drugs. The film arrived in Zagreb accompanied by conflicting opinions: while some dismissed it as an amateurish low-budget production, many more praised it as a finely crafted drama that convincingly portrays the moral collapse of Serbian society on the eve of the war.”

— Jurica Pavičić, Jutarnji list, 14 October 2004

“The year is 1991. Serbia is involved in a war with Croatia that has not yet officially been declared. Aleksandar Davić’s debut feature The Party offers a cross-section of Serbian youth—their plans, dreams, hopes, desires and anxieties. Each character defines life differently, yet their thirst for living, entertainment and sex remains equally dominant.”

— Wiesbadener Tagblatt, 7 April 2005

Renowned film critic Milan Vlajčić, writing for the Serbian daily Blic, included The Party among the five best Serbian feature films of 2005, ranking it second on his annual list.